Battle in the Badlands
by kora22
Summary: Chumvi messes up again, this time resulting in an adventure in the Badlands...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, time for a fun story. One that doesn't involve being kidnapped and badly beaten. You might find something familiar about this story... Maybe you'll catch what it's based off of.**

* * *

**Chapter One: The Spell**

Tora was still in a lot of pain. There was no doubting that. It had only been two days since she was kidnapped and abused by Wildfire. Simba and his friends had managed to get to her before Wildfire could hurt her even worse, but he managed to get in one last slash, which had nearly ended Tora's life... But Wildfire was dead now; he wouldn't be hurting anybody ever again... Or so they thought. They told their parents the truth. They weren't happy that the cubs hadn't come to them first, but were thankful that they were okay.

"Owww..." Tora moaned as she shifted uncomfortably in her spot. The slightest bit of movement brought unbearable pain.

"Don't move too much." Mheetu said as he sat by Tora's side, "You're injuries are still too severe."

"Obviously..." Tora said as she finally got comfortable, "You don't have to sit here all day, you know. Go outside, I'm fine."

"Not a chance." Mheetu said, "I'm staying right here."

"If you say so..." Tora said, "Where is everyone?"

"I think Simba, Nala, Kora, Haiba and Sora are down at the water hole with Chumvi and Tama." Mheetu answered. "Kulaani and Vitani went off to the jungle again, and Angani was acting strange again, so she and Mkali are spending the day alone."

"Yeah, I think Chumvi said something about practicing spells." Mheetu told her.

"Are they sure it's safe for them to be down there?" Tora asked, remembering when Chumvi had accidentally switched their genders, nearly resulting in them being stuck that way for good.

"Oh, they'll be fine." Mheetu assured her, "Now, try to get some more rest."

* * *

"What spell are you trying today?" Simba asked.

"If it's a love spell, I'll be happy to assist." Haiba told him, "Heck, you don't even need the spell."

"No love spell." Chumvi replied, "This is a teleportation spell. If I get this right, I'll never have to walk long distances again!"

"So, it's a laziness spell?" Nala asked.

"No." Chumvi retorted, "It's a convenience spell."

"What ever you say." Nala said, "I still think that it makes you seem pretty lazy."

"Whatever..." Chumvi said as his paws began glowing. "Just let me do this without criticism..."

"If you don't kill us." Kora said, "These spells don't always work too well..."

"We get out of trouble don't we?" Chumvi asked. "Now, let me concentrate on what I'm doing."

Chumvi closed his eyes. His paws grew brighter and brighter until there was a sudden flash. At the same time as the flash all the cubs felt themselves black out. Just after, Neema came down to the water hole looking for them.

"Kids?" She said, "It's time for lunch." When she got down there, the cubs were gone. "I know that I just heard them talking down here... Where could they have gotten off to so quickly?" She looked around for the cubs, but couldn't find them anywhere.

"Come out now, or you don't eat until dinner!" She knew the cubs didn't like to miss eating, so that was sure to draw them out. She waited five minutes and there was still no sign of them. She came to the decision that it was a prank or one of their games. "I guess they won't eat until later." She headed back to Pride Rock, completely unaware of what really happened...

* * *

Simba's eyes suddenly snapped open. He shot up and looked around, seeing that the others were also awake... But the strangest thing was their location... They were no longer in the Pridelands.

"Where are we?" Simba asked as he climbed to his paws.

"We don't know." Kora said, narrowing his eyes at Chumvi, "_Where _are we?"

"Nowhere we should be... That's for sure." Chumvi said.

They all observed the land they were in. It was the middle of the day, yet the sky had an orange color about it. Stranger yet was the fact that there were streams of lava everywhere. They flowed just like a normal river would. They also noticed a large skull out in the distance.

"Weird..." Sora said, "Where the heck are we?"

"Who are you?" A very deep, primitive voice sounded from behind them.

The cubs all turned around to face the owner of the voice. In front of them was an adult lion with light red fur. He held a staff that had a small skull attached to the top. It seemed to have a faint blue glow about it.

"Are you in charge around here?" Simba asked, stepping forward.

"Yes." the lion answered, "My name is Pango. Who are you?"

"I'm Simba, Prince of the Pridelands." Simba said, "That's Nala, Kora, Sora, Haiba, Chumvi, and Tama. What is this place?"

"This is my home." Pango told them. "The Badlands."

"The Badlands?" Simba asked, "I've never heard of this place."

"This is a very dangerous land to live in, so nobody ever comes here. That might be obvious from the rivers of lava that flow throughout the land." Pango said. "We've been having some trouble lately as well... With some creatures called Magma Monitors. They've been causing so many problems lately."

"Magma Monitors?" Haiba asked, "What's a-"

He was cut off by a sudden scream from nearby. Whoever it was, they were in trouble... The scream continued and got louder.

Pango had a look of worry on his face. "Oh, no..."

* * *

**A/N: Anybody catching what this story is based off of yet? If you're not, then maybe you will later on. What is a Magma Monitor? Who's in trouble? Find out next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Ready to find a bit more about this pride? What exactly lies in the Badlands? Well, let's find out.**

**anonymous13: I guess I never really clarified if the adults know about his powers. I say they do because he doesn't attempt to keep them a secret.**

**LionKingFactsGuy2: Yep. That is most certainly what this story is based on... Can you know what level?**

* * *

**Chapter Two: The Magma Monitors**

"Quickly!" Pango exclaimed, "Follow me!"

"Why?" Simba asked, "What's going on?"

"You'll see!" Pango shouted, "I may need your help."

The cubs decided to follow him without any further questions. They followed him to a small hut contructed of bones, but rather than going inside, they ran around to the back... What they saw was a very strange sight. There was a lion cub there; his fur was so light red it was almost pink, but what was stranger was the creature that hovered above him. It looked to be some kind of lizard with wings, but it's size was larger than that of the cubs.

"What is that thing?" Nala asked, never having seen a creature like it.

"That is one of the Magma Monitors." Pango informed them, "We need to stop it before-"

Suddenly, the creature shot a fire ball from it's mouth at the pink-furred cub. The ball of fire skimmed the tail of the cub, sending him into a frenzy. He started running around trying to put his tail out.

"I'll handle this..." Haiba said stepping forward.

"Are you crazy!?" Simba exclaimed, "That thing shoots fire balls!"

"It's nothing I can't handle." Haiba said, "Just give me a minute." Haiba walked closer to the Magma Monitor before calling out to it, "Hey! Pick on someone your own size!"

The flying creature suddenly glared at Haiba and began flying towards him.

"Uh, oh..." Haiba backed away.

The lizard shot another fire ball at Haiba, who managed to jump out of the way just in time. He looked back up at the monitor.

"I can see you won't be interested in a relationship..." Haiba said before dodging another attack by the creature. "I guess we'll need to do this the hard way." He charged at the lizard, jumping up and latching his claws into it. It let out a small cry of pain as it struggled to break free. It started to fly away, dragging Haiba along the ground. It was carrying him right for a lava river. Haiba did the logical thing and let go before he got hurt. The Magma Monitor kept flying away, it didn't seem to want to cause any more trouble.

"Hah!" Haiba laughed, "Easy!" He turned around to head back to the group, but was instantly met with a hug from the lion cub that was being attacked. It didn't say anything to him, it just held him tightly in a hug.

"I think I like this pride..." Haiba said, "This little guy has quite the grip."

"That's how they all repay you for saving their lives." Pango said, "Why don't you follow us back to where our homes are?"

"I can try to get us back home." Chumvi said, "If the spell works this time."

"If you need to get home," Pango said, "I have a cousin on the other side of the Badlands who knows such magic. I know some magic, but not what you seek."

"How do we get there?" Simba asked.

"It's simple." Pango said, "See that large skull over there?" He pointed his staff to a large elephant skull in the distance. "There is a passage that goes through it, after you are out of there, the rest of the path will be easy to see, but still very dangerous... Come to our village first, we haven't had visitors in a long while."

The cubs let Pango walk ahead of them and followed. The pink-furred cub finally released Haiba from the hug and they both followed the group.

* * *

When Pango and the cubs reached the home of Pango and the rest of the pride, it was unlike any other pride the cubs had seen. Rather than a cave that the pride lived in, there were small structures built from bones. They also didn't see any lionesses, only cubs like the one Haiba had saved. All those cubs gathered around Pango.

"These are my little buddies." Pango told the Simba and his friends, "We usually live here peacefully, but lately the Magma Monitors have been out of control."

"Like that one that attacked earlier?" Nala asked.

"Yes..." Pango answered, "But there have been bigger prob-"

Pango stopped when a loud screech was heard from overhead. The cubs that had gathered around him quickly scattered in different directions.

Pango, Simba, and the other cubs looked up to the sky. Huge birds, maybe giant hawks, were carrying something over the pride.

"What are those things and what are they carrying?" Sora asked, stunned at the enourmous size of the birds.

Pango didn't need to answer as the birds dropped the objects. They were giant red eggs... They had been scattered around the pride. There looked to be maybe nine of them.

"Eggs?" Simba asked, walking over to one that had dropped nearby. "What are a bunch of eggs going to do?"

"Stand back from those!" Pango shouted. "They're dangerous!"

"Dangerous!?" Simba laughed, "Whatever hatches from them have to be babies, how bad can they be."

The egg in front of Simba suddenly cracked and the creature inside was revealed. Simba was now standing face to face with a huge, bright red, lizard. It was maybe eight feet tall and stood on it's hind legs. It bared it's teeth at Simba and let a roar out in his face. He quickly backed up as the monster stared him down.

"Simba," Pango said, "Be careful with that Magma Monitor, they're the ones that have been giving us all the trouble!"

Simba turned around to run away, but he tripped and fell as he did. That was when the monitor charged. It reached Simba and was about to scoop him up in it's mouth... But it didn't get the chance before Chumvi hit it with a magic blast, successfully sending it into a sharp bone that was protruding from the huts. It was killed right when it was impaled.

Simba quickly clambered to his paws and ran back to his friends. He sighed, "That was too close."

They looked out to where the other eggs were. That's when something awful happened... They all began hatching.

* * *

**A/N: Things just escalated quickly... How are they going to manage to take out all these monitors? It won't be an easy task, that's for sure...**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Those Magma Monitors are quite vicious... They don't seem like simple opponents.**

**Greg M 94: I'm not so sure how interested in Haiba these creatures would be. They're just vicious.**

**anonymous13: Not all of the Magma Monitors will have wings... You'll see that there will be different types.**

* * *

**Chapter Three: The Attack**

"What do we do!?" Simba yelled as he and the others all watched the other Magma Monitors break out of their shells. As they were all set free, they began to scatter.

"Quick!" Pango said as he ran after one of the monitors, "Each of us need to take one of them before they eat the other pride members!"

They all split up and ran for a Magma Monitor. The lizards were beginning to find the pride members in their hiding places. Haiba reached one of the creatures first, just as it scooped up one of the pride's cubs with it's mouth and threw it up in the air. Haiba leapt up and knocked the cub out of the air, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Haiba stood up and faced the lizard.

"Not today!" He shouted as he faced the monitor, which growled at him. "I think we can work this out peacefully, can't we?"

The Magma Monitor just roared in his face, covering him in lizard drool.

"I guess not..." Haiba said as he wiped the drool off his face, "I suppose we'll have to do this the hard way."

* * *

Simba ran up behind one of the Magma Monitors and jumped on it's back. He wasn't going to run away from the danger this time. This overgrown reptile was going down... Well, if he could figure out how to kill it. It's skin was tough to break through with his claws. If he were going to kill it with his claws, he would need to put a lot more strength into it, but he was thrown off the reptile's back before he could try.

Simba slammed into the ground and slid a few feet across the dusty surface before coming to a stop. He now had the monitor's full attention.

Simba was about to stand up, but he felt something bite down on his tail and start to pull him back. He turned his head and saw that the Magma Monitor now had a hold of him.

"Hey!" Simba yelled. "Let go of me!" It was clear to Simba that yelling at it wasn't going to work. That's when he came up with another idea.

_The eyes! _Simba thought to himself. It's eyes were the only thing that he could reach. If he could blind it, then it wouldn't be much of an issue to kill it. He reached back with his paw and scratched the lizard across the right eye, causing it to let go of his tail and recoil in pain. Simba took the opportunity to attack it's other eye by making direct contact to the eye with his claws. Now the Magma Monitor was completely blind.

"Hah!" Simba yelled as he jumped on it's back again and put his claws on it's throat, "Now I've got you!" Simba used all of his strength to puncture the reptile's skin with his claws... Then he tore it away, causing the creature to start bleeding heavily. Simba jumped off it's back as it fell to the ground. It wasn't much longer before it bled out and died.

"One down." Simba said.

He looked around and saw Nala get hit by a Magma Monitor's tail, sending her flying through the air before hitting the ground hard. He ran over and helped pick her up off the ground.

"These things are tougher than they look..." Nala told him as she stood, "And they're fast."

"You cubs need some help?" Pango asked. He had taken care of his opponent fairly quickly, due to the experience fighting them.

"A little." Nala said. "These things are tough to beat."

"They aren't if you know exactly what to do." Pango said as he stood in front of the reptile. "Watch."

The monitor let out a roar and bolted right at Pango. Without hesitating, he lifted his staff and plunged the bottom of it into the Magma Monitor's chest, hitting it directly in the heart. He pulled the blood covered staff out and the lizard fell to the ground, dead.

"Well, we all don't have a staff to stab them with..." Nala said.

"I killed one with my claws..." Simba said, "But it wasn't that easy..."

"How is everyone else doing?" Nala asked. Her question was soon answered when she saw Kora, Sora, Chumvi, and Tama walking over... But there was something off about them.

"Uh... Why are you guys covered in blood?" Simba asked, "And chunks of flesh?"

"Chumvi kept using a spell that made them explode." Kora said, "I think I got some giant lizard pieces in my mouth..."

"At least we know that they're dead." Chumvi told them, "They won't be coming back."

"Wait..." Nala said, "Where's Haiba?"

"Um... I found him." Tama pointed. They all looked to the direction she was indicating.

Sure enough, there was Haiba... He was being cornered by the Magma Monitor; he had nowhere to run.

"A little help!" Haiba shouted to his friends. "I'm a little trapped!"

"Hold on!" Pango yelled as he ran over to Haiba. He hit the lizard on the head with his staff to get his attention. "Stay away from him!" The lizard did exactly what Pango wanted it to do. It turned around, offering a clean shot for Pango to kill it. He once again thrust the staff into the heart of the monitor, making it collapse.

Haiba scurried over to his friends. "What a shame... That one was pretty cute..."

"Alright," Pango said as he removed the staff from the creature's chest, "that was the last one. Everyone in the pride is safe."

"Where did they go?" Simba asked, not seeing any of those cubs anywhere.

"They'll be hiding for a while." Pango informed them. "You better get moving if you want to get home. It's a long way to the other side of the Badlands. You must be careful... You'll see other Magma Monitors along the way... None like those ones, but they will still pose a threat."

"Don't worry." Simba replied, "We'll be careful." He looked out to the elephant skull that Pango had pointed out before... It seemed easy enough. Only a few Magma Monitors... Oh, and the bubbling rivers of lava.

Simba let out a deep breath, "Let's go..." He had no idea if they would make it to the other side of the Badlands completely unharmed... It certainly hadn't started out well for them...

* * *

**A/N: Yay! They got by the Magma Monitors! At least Chumvi got that spell to work right... So, will they be able to find Pango's cousin? Or will they be caught by the monitors? They could also fall in a lava pit, but I guess you'll have to wait and see what happens.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates the last couple days. Had college orientation, then my internet was a little spotty last night. Enjoy the chapter!**

**snheetah: No Wildfire in this one. He's probably still looking for a partner... Something smarter than an overgrown reptile.**

**Greg M 94: Nothing does seem to phase Haiba does it? Unless things get really bad, then we all know he can be serious.**

* * *

**Chapter Four: The Skeleton**

"How are we going to get through here?" Nala said as she and the others entered the skull they had been directed to. It was in front of the entrance to a cave, which was pretty big on the inside, but not terribly long; the exit was in their sight. So, it wasn't the length that troubled Nala, but the stream of lava that cut through the cave and the few winged Magma Monitors that were ahead of them.

"We can just jump across the lava." Simba said as he launched himself over the first river of the molten liquid, but he only cleared it by a few inches. He turned back to face his friends, "Come on, we you can make it."

Tama jumped next. She made it over with much more ease than Simba had. Tama was followed by Chumvi, Haiba, and Sora. Kora remained on the other side of the lava looking down with uncertainty.

"I'm not sure I can jump that far..." Kora told them as he backed up a few inches.

"Well, you need to get across." Simba said, "Or else you'll have to find your own way back to the Pridelands, and we have no clue how to walk back from here."

Kora knew Simba was right, he had to get across somehow. He looked around, hoping there was some kind of ledge he could use to get across, but there was nothing. The only option he had was to try and make the jump. He backed up further to get a running start. He ran as fast as he could toward the lava... But he jumped too early.

"He's not going to make it!" Nala yelled as she ran over to the edge. She reached out and managed to grab one of Kora's paws and pull him far enough to clear the jump. They both fell to the ground when Kora crashed into her.

"That was close..." Nala said as she shook off the hit.

"You're telling me." Kora breathed, "I could have been melted!"

"At least we're all across now." Simba said, "Now we just need to get by those monitors..."

"Allow me." Chumvi said as he approached the two creatures, which had not yet noticed the cubs, but that didn't last long when Chumvi got closer. They immediately focused on him and spat two fire balls at him. He managed to quickly jump out of the way and hit one of them with a blast of magic, causing it to drop to the ground, dead.

"One down." Chumvi said to himself as he faced the last one. He attacked it before it had the opportunity to do the same to him, but this time, the magic didn't work as planned.

The Magma Monitor was unharmed by the blast and it once again attacked Chumvi with a fire ball... It missed him, but the blast from it was so powerful that he was blasted into a wall. He slid to the ground, moaning in pain. Chumvi had amplified the power of the monitor's attack.

"Just great..." Simba sighed, "I guess it'll take us all to beat that thing."

Simba and the other cubs ran toward it. The Magma Monitor saw them coming and quickly let off another attack on the cubs.

"Watch out!" Simba exclaimed as they all dove out of the way, avoiding the fireball and it's blast. The lizard looked around at all the cubs, as if trying to decide which one to attack. Then it saw Haiba. This was the same one that he had attacked earlier. It went right over to Haiba and hovered over him, and glared.

"Oh..." Haiba said, "Uh... Hello there! You're still not mad about earlier, are you?"

The Magma Monitor let out a vicious hiss in Haiba's face, causing him to back away a little.

"I'll take that as a yes..." Haiba said.

The Magma Monitor was going to attack Haiba, but as it was about to, Chumvi hit it again with his magic. This time he knew it was dead, he had blasted a hole clear through it's chest.

"At least he's okay." Simba said, looking over at Chumvi.

"It takes more than that to keep me down." Chumvi said, "We can get out of here now. Pango's cousin shouldn't be too far away."

* * *

When the cubs exited the cave, they found themselves in a huge, open area. Much like the rest of the Badlands, there was streams of lava around them, but they would be able to get over them a little easier than before.

"Hey," Haiba said, pointing ahead of him, "I think I see a lion over there."

They all looked to where he was indicating, and sure enough, there was a lion standing out by one of the lava streams.

"Let's go see him." Simba said as he started to make his way over to the lion, "Maybe that's who we're looking for."

They had to cross a couple of the small streams, but nothing to dangerous to get there. There were some Magma Monitors, but they were far away enough that they weren't posing any threat right now. When the cubs reached the lion, they saw he had slightly darker fur than Pango and that he held a staff just like Pango's.

"Excuse me?" Simba said, noticing the lion looked rather depressed. "Are you Pango's cousin?"

The lion nodded, "Yes, I am. My name is Klabu."

"What's wrong?" Nala asked, also taking notice of Klabu's sadness.

Klabu motioned down to a pile of bones in front of him It looked like the complete skeleton of a cub, minus the skull.

"This was my friend." Klabu said, "After he died, I was able to bring his skeleton to life."

"How did he die?" Simba asked.

"We found him dead." Klabu said, "It looked like he had been stabbed through the chest by something."

"Oh..." Simba said, "If you brought the skeleton to life, why is he just a pile of bones right now?"

"One of those vicious Magma Monitors stole his skull while I wasn't looking." Klabu told them, "I searched and searched, but I haven't found the lizard or the skull."

As much as Simba and the others wanted to get home, they felt it would be wrong for them to ask Klabu to help them get home right now.

"We'll find it for you." Simba offered. "We need to get home, but we can help you first."

"Really?" Klabu asked.

"Yes." Simba said, "Where do the Magma Monitors tend to live?"

"In caves." Klabu informed them, "Actually, I was wrong about it being a Magma Monitor. It was actually a Fire Frog."

"A Fire Frog?" Nala asked, "What do those look like?"

"They're hard to miss when you see one." Klabu said, "They are bright yellow, and they live in the same habitats as Magma Monitors, but they are much more rare."

"We'll find it." Simba said. He turned to his friends, "Let's start looking."

As the cubs were leaving to start their search, Haiba suddenly turned back.

"Wait!" Haiba exclaimed as he faced Klabu, "I have a question."

"Yes?" Klabu motioned for him to continue.

"Are these Fire Frogs cute?" Haiba asked.

Nala walked over to Haiba and grabbed his ear. "Just ignore him." She smiled at Klabu.

Haiba stuggled to get his ear away from Nala as she pulled him away. "Ow! Nala, let go! I was just wondering."

"We don't have time for your games, Haiba." Nala said, "We have a job to do."

* * *

**A/N: Hm... So a Fire Frog has stolen the skull of Klabu's friend... I know how Klabu feels, that happened to me once. Well, I'll see you tomorrow!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm back with the final chapter! Can they find the skull of Klabu's friend and get home? Will Klabu even be able to help them?**

**Anonymous13 B: I was kidding about being in the same situation as Klabu. That would be kind of weird if I was serious, wouldn't it?**

* * *

**Chapter Five: The Search**

"Where should we even begin looking?" Kora asked as the cubs looked around their surroundings. There were many caves in the area, and the Fire Frog they were looking for could be in any one of them. They had no clue how long this would take them.

"We better get started." Simba said, "We have a lot of ground to cover."

"It can't be too hard." Haiba said, "He said a Fire Frog is bright yellow. That seems like it would be easy to spot."

"That may be," Simba replied, "but look at all these caves, there's tons of them!"

"The Fire Frog has to be in one of them." Sora said, "We should find it."

"I guess we'll check that one first." Simba pointed to a cave that was close by. "It's the closest."

"Don't you think that Klabu would have already checked there?" Chumvi asked.

"Yeah," Simba replied, "but that Fire Frog could be hiding anywhere; a spot only it can get into."

The cubs made their way over to the cave. It was much smaller than the one they had been in previously. There was hardly any room inside, and it was easy to tell that the creature they were looking for wouldn't have anywhere to hide in it. They decided to move on to the next one, which was considerably bigger. When they stepped through the entrance, a few small Magma Monitors scurried under some rocks, trying to stay out of the way. The cave looked to stretch much farther back, making the cubs believe that there was a strong chance that the Fire Frog was somewhere inside.

"Hey..." Haiba said, "Do you hear something?"

They all stopped and listened. There was a faint noise coming from somewhere inside the cave.

"It sounds like something being gnawed on." Nala said, "Like a bone. Maybe the Fire Frog is in here."

When they walked a little farther into the cave, they saw that there was a point where it turned. There was a faint orange glow coming from around the corner. What they saw was surprising. There was a large pool of lava in that part of the cave. Rocks were scattered about, protruding from the molten liquid's surface. On the other side of the deadly pool was a bright yellow frog; in it's mouth, it held the skull of a lion cub.

"Looks like we've found it." Simba said as he walked to the edge of the lava pool. "I'll get it."

"Just be careful." Nala told him as she watched the lava bubble.

Simba then on to one of the rocks that was sticking up. That one was close, so he got to it with ease. He then jumped to the second, then the third, getting closer and closer to his objective. He only had a couple more stones to get to before he reached the other side. He jumped again, this time almost losing his balance, but he quickly recovered.

"I'm good!" He yelled back to the others. He turned his attention back to jumping. Simba reached the last stone without any trouble. Now, he just had to make the last jump, which was also the longest. He bent his legs and lauched himself with all his power. All four of his paws landed safely on the ground... His tail wasn't so lucky.

"OW!" Simba yelled as he fell to his back, trying to use the paws to ease the pain from the burn on his tail. "Owowowowowow!"

"You okay!?" Chumvi yelled over to him.

"Oh, sure..." Simba said, "Nothing like having your tail get burned by lava..." He removed his paws from his tail. Most of the fur on the tip was completely burned off, but some of it was just singed. "That'll take awhile to grow back..." He needed to ignore the stinging pain still coming from his tail and get the skull. He walked over to the Fire Frog, which didn't seem to be scared of Simba at all. The only thing it did was turn away when Simba tried to take the skull from it. He didn't have time to let this frog do this. He jumped on it's back and dug his claws into it's skin, causing it to drop the skull and let out a small cry of pain. Simba released it and it jumped into the lava to hide.

"Finally." Simba said as he picked up the skull in his mouth, which was a little gross. He was more careful this time as he crossed back to his friends.

"Well," Kora said, "this went pretty quick. Klabu should be happy."

"Let's just get that skull back to him." Nala said, "Then we might be able to get home."

* * *

Klabu was surprised when he saw the cubs returning already. His face lit up when he saw Simba carrying the skull.

"You found it!" Klabu said, "That lousy Fire Frog must have been hiding in the lava the whole time..."

Simba set the skull down next to the other bones. "Now what?"

Klabu held his staff out towards the bones, causing a light blue glow to surround them. The bones lifted off the ground and started to swirl around. They began to fit back together, slowly rebuilding the skeleton of the cub. The process didn't take much longer, and soon there was the skeleton standing in front of them. Now that the skeleton was rebuilt, the cubs could see where he had most likely been stabbed. Several of it's ribs were broken. It walked over to Klabu and stood by his side.

"Is it weird I find that skeleton kind of cute?" Tama asked. "If only it had a squeaky voice..."

Everyone just gave her a weird look, except for Haiba.

"No," Haiba said, "He's pretty cute."

"Is there anything I can do to repay you cubs?" Klabu asked.

"We need to get home." Simba said, "We accidentally got teleported here from the Pridelands when our friend's spell went wrong."

"Of course." Klabu said, "I'm an expert with this spell." The magic from his staff began surrounding them. "Alright, just a few more seconds..." He kept his concentration on them until they vanished. He lowered the staff and looked at his friend.

"Why did she think you were cute?" Klabu asked, "And why would she want you to have a squeaky voice?"

* * *

Simba and his friends found themselves back at the water hole. They were home. They sun wasn't setting yet, but it would be soon

"We're back!" Nala exclaimed.

"Where did you go?" Mkali asked as she and Angani came out of the tall grass.

"It's a long, long story." Simba said, "We do know that Chumvi won't be attempting any teleportation spells for awhile..."

Chumvi laughed nervously, "Heh heh... Yeah..."

"I'm going up to see Tora." Kora told them, walking away from the group, "I haven't been able to see her all day."

"I'll come too." Sora said, following his brother.

"Come on, Mkali." Angani said, pulling her girlfriend with her, "I'm exhausted... I need some rest... As if I'll get it anyway." She added that last part under her breath as they left.

"I'm off to practice more magic." Chumvi said, with Tama following behind him. "I'll make sure not to kill anyone."

Now it was Simba, Nala, and Haiba... Well, until a large, tan lion with a brownish-black mane appeared in front of them. He seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Well, hello there." the strange lion said. He looked at the three cubs before narrowing his eyes at Nala. "You're name wouldn't happen to be Nala, would it?"

Nala gave Simba an unsure look before looking back at the lion. "Uh... Yeah, who are you?"

The lion grinned, "I'm not surprised you don't remember me... I find it a little sad. Everyone should know their own father..."

* * *

**A/N: Well, they're out of the Badlands, but now this lion shows up... Nala's father... Is he really, or is he just crazy? I guess you'll find out in the next story.**


End file.
